The veteran prop is off-contract at the end of the year and Thorn is sensitive to not being drawn on the evolving case.

"The club will address that stuff down the track," Thorn said.

Thorn was speaking after the Reds' 18-15 loss to the Highlanders when dumb kicking in general play ruined a major chance to topple the Kiwis.

The Reds kicked the ball 11 times with the scores at 15-all and eight of those from Jono Lance (four) Moses Sorovi (three) and Petaia were rubbish to mediocre.

Meanwhile, rugby's new "nipple-line" law to reduce high tackles will water down the physicality of the game that a perplexed Thorn once played.

World Rugby has admirably tried to do something about the rise in concussions and head injuries yet the method has Thorn and other luminaries shaking their heads.

Thorn isn’t impressed with the new high-tackle law.

The experimental law for the World Under-20s Championships in France next month means tackling above the nipple line will be judged as a dangerous tackle.

It should be dubbed the Scaramanga Law for the confusion the old Bond movie villain would have created with his three nipples.

World Rugby cited evidence collected from 1500 elite matches that the risk of injury to both players from a high-contact tackle (when the tackler is upright) is four times greater than a low-contact tackle.

Australia's World Rugby chief medical officer Dr Martin Raftery said the trial was aimed at a technique change to lower tackling "to remove the tackler's head from a high-risk situation".